Can anyone rich enough to buy an NFL team simply go out and buy one? Don’t bet on it. You are what you eat, some nutritionists say. For players, team owners, the media, and perhaps for even the sports betting public, you may be what you say. Rush Limbaugh creates controversy with what he says. It’s his job. He has made a fortune and created a media empire saying outrageous things that infuriate liberals and empower conservatives. The art of being successful in radio is riling people up and getting them to call in. This builds an audience. When ESPN added Limbaugh to its Sunday morning pregame show, Sunday NFL Countdown, a two-hour marathon that often seemed to be almost as long for some sports bettors as the NBA season, the hope was that millions of his fans would blindly follow him to ESPN. Limbaugh didn’t disappoint viewers or his critics and he made big headlines. But they weren’t exactly the kind that ESPN wanted and Limbaugh was soon off the air. When Limbaugh announced recently that he would become one of the owners of an NFL team, one expert in the world of sports betting knew a long shot when he saw one.

Dick Wells, a sports analyst at youwager.com, one of the most respected sportsbooks in online gambling, explains: “It’s not about Republicans versus Democrats, racial prejudice, or even Limbaugh’s opinions. It’s about money. Follow the money and you’ll get the real story.” As Wells sees it, Rush would have only been a limited partner in the Rams organization, and supposedly would have had no say in the direction of the club, daily operations, or in any decisions regarding personnel or team members. When Dave Checketts, the sports businessman leading the group effort to purchase the National Football League franchise dumped the controversial conservative talk show host, his formal public statement wasn’t quite as clear. He said Limbaugh’s involvement in their group had become a “complication and a distraction.”

Criticism against Rush Limbaugh reached a high point with the ESPN remarks, and some of the other colorful things that Limbaugh has said over the years on his radio show finally added up to go way over the total, just days after Limbaugh disclosed his intent to buy a minority interest in the Rams. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had already responded with his own criticism of the infamous ESPN comments, after Limbaugh claimed on air that the media favored Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb because it wants a black quarterback to succeed. Here’s what Rush actually said: “McNabb is overrated … what we have here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback can do well—black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well.”

Rush didn’t say Donovan McNabb was a bad quarterback because he is black. He said that the media has mistakenly overrated McNabb because he is black.

It didn’t matter that there were sports writers who agreed with him. As soon as they heard about the Rams bid, some NFL players said they could never play for the man if he bought the team. Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts stated in interviews during the NFL owners meetings that he doubted Limbaugh would win approval from the required three-quarters of the league’s owners. “Over the last twenty years, officials on twenty-three of the thirty-two NFL clubs have donated more money to Republicans than Democrats,” says Wells at youwager.com. So why wasn’t a group with a majority of Republicans willing to wager on Rush, a powerful spokesperson for the party? “NFL owners still value business more than anything else,” according to Wells. “When they saw Rush Limbaugh trying to join their exclusive club, they were probably afraid he might be another Marge Schott, someone who could cause more trouble than he’s worth. Someone who could cost them big dollars in the end.” So there you have it. The Money. A First Fidelity company, youwager.com has been called the sportsbook that “pays like a bank” since it began several years ago. Apparently, a business that operates like a bank understands the true value of money.